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How about an "Indie Publisher" category

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

Sorry, Lazeez, for all the 'new category' requests, but until there's a 'add new category' button ...

How about a "Self-Publishing" category. There are only a small handful of us here, but we pretty well take over the "Author" category (at least on the old Forum). Keeping the self-publishing queries in a separate category would help keep the "Author" category cleaner and less intimidating to newbies.

And thanks for the quick action on the "Editors" category. It'll be interesting to see if there's much interest in it.

aubie56 ๐Ÿšซ

This is an excellent idea. Personally, since I am not interested in publishing anywhere but SOL, I was getting very tired of wading through the Amazon pro and con arguments, etc. in an effort to find something I cared about.

This would provide an easy way for me to skip those discussions that I could not care less about.

-- aubie56

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@aubie56

This would provide an easy way for me to skip those discussions that I could not care less about.

Not only that, it would be easier to find forgotten details (say, like I'm doing now trying to find all the ancient discussions on the old forum).

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

Sigh. I guess, aside from Aubie, this idea has died.

Sorry, Aubie, but I guess you'll have to put up with Ernest, Switch and I talking publishing details for a while longer. :(

Replies:   Switch Blayde
Switch Blayde ๐Ÿšซ

@Vincent Berg

Have you all noticed this forum has less thread drift than the Google group?

Oops, I guess I just drifted. But since I have, I wonder where questions about HTML, Operating Systems, and all the other technical things we used to talk about will show up.

Replies:   Ernest Bywater
Ernest Bywater ๐Ÿšซ

@Switch Blayde

I suspect it's because this forum has a more structured set up than the GG one did. In GG it was every thread thrown in together so drift was a natural result. Here, you have groups for various subjects, and thus you enter a thread with the pre-set mind to keep it within the group subject, so you have less thread drift because it stays within the lines.

BTW CW. I support having the indie publishing separate from the rest, but it may have to be a thread of its own in the Author Hangout group. I can understand why Lazeez doesn't want to be seen as supporting people going over to other publishers - be like asking them to leave him; which is not something I want to even consider or do.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@Ernest Bywater

BTW CW. I support having the indie publishing separate from the rest, but it may have to be a thread of its own in the Author Hangout group. I can understand why Lazeez doesn't want to be seen as supporting people going over to other publishers - be like asking them to leave him; which is not something I want to even consider or do.

I hadn't even considered that, but the fear might be that a new author might see the discussion and figure they might do better publishing than posting on SOL.
I'd suggest that Lazeez post a notice to the top of any "Indie Publishers" group warning users not to post "teasers", along with a warning that most sales will be to the authors' SOL fans, and that those initial sales have to be built, you don't just find them.

Switch, I had noticed the lack of thread drift, which is one reason why I congratulated Lazeez on the new forum. It seems to be better constructed than Google Groups.

richardshagrin ๐Ÿšซ
Updated:

Barney Google, with his goo-goo googley eyes. Part of a very old song lyric. Before the comic strip Snuffy Smith which itself is elderly, Barney Google was a comic strip character. I seem to recall a regular Barney Google was a very fast automobile driver. I am not sure how Google got the rights to use the name. Oops, it was Barney Oldfield that was the automobile racer. Mixed up my Barneys.

I intend to take nothing away from SOL's management, but doing better than Google Groups may be damming with faint praise. On the order of "For a fat girl, she doesn't sweat much." I could be wrong, it certainly happens a lot. But does anyone here believe Google Groups has a superior product? I think we all are very happy to have this new forum. I even like it better than Gina's againstum.

Replies:   Vincent Berg
Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

@richardshagrin

I could be wrong, it certainly happens a lot. But does anyone here believe Google Groups has a superior product? I think we all are very happy to have this new forum. I even like it better than Gina's againstum.

I liked how much control people had over their own messages (their html support), but it came at a terrible cost in start-up time. But, given how simplistic Lazeez's forum appeared, I was prepared to be mildly disappointed. Instead, the simplicity seems to be it's greatest strength (though I really miss being able to add pictures to illustrate discussions).

Vincent Berg ๐Ÿšซ

As I mentioned in another thread (in "Author's"), I finally asked Lazeez directly. As we suspected, his issues were focused on authors suddenly deciding to publish and acting like asses, drawing readers away from the site.

In general, the few published authors here have been good citizens, seeing the SOL audience as an excellent sounding board and a steady source of revenue (i.e. hurting the site would lead to a loss of sales very quickly).

The biggest problem we've had so far, has been authors caught between books. They publish their old stories while leaving them on SOL, but try to sell their newest books (which Lazeez sees as a variation on 'teasers', where readers are given a couple chapters for free and are then asked to purchase the rest of the book).

The solution to that, for most of us, is you publish it first, then after a certain period, after the sales drop off (generally at the 3-month mark), we offer it for free to help boost flagging sales.

However, the end result is that Lazeez will NOT create a publishing category, as he sees it as a site endorsement of publishing as an alternative. (I'd suggested it primarily so we could off-load the publishing discussions so they wouldn't overwhelm readers/authors uninterested in the topic.)

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